NASA's LADEE Moon Mission: 5 Goals

NASA will use the unmanned LADEE explorer to study the moon's delicate atmosphere and learn about similar space bodies.

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Among LADEE's science instruments is the ultraviolet and visible light spectrometer (UVS), located on the upper deck of the spacecraft. UVS is able to determine the composition of the lunar atmosphere by analyzing light signatures of various materials. While scientists are aware that the Earth's atmosphere contains oxygen, they don't know what makes up the moon's atmosphere. LADEE will help address the mystery as it sends its measurements back to Earth to be analyzed.

Actually, The LADEE spacecraftGÇÖs modular common spacecraft bus is an innovative way of transitioning away from custom designs and toward multi-use designs and assembly-line production, which could drastically reduce the cost of spacecraft development, just as the Ford Model T did for automobiles.

i hope they can resolve the problem with the attitude control wheels so they don't have to use too much fuel and cut the mission short. It was a pretty launch, and one Orbital badly needed to succeed after having several other incarnations of the Minotaur fail previously. Very glad this one worked fine, and to have a lunar launch from Virginia. Pretty neat.